Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-12-04
sUNDAY........DECEMBER 4. 1887.
False Hopes.

No better proof need be adduced Of
the strait in which the Republicans find
themselves than the claim set upb them
that they have reason to hope that they
will carry Virginia next year. Here, for
/. example, is JOHN SHERMAN's leading or
gan feeding the people of Ohio upon
such stuff as the following, which is the
heading of q Washington telegram in
its columns-to wit, "Virginia Repub-
lican-Democrats in Panic Since the
Last Election" &C., &c. Surely the
SHERMAN organ is a Bourbon for it
"learns nothing" from history or expe-
rience. Let us refresh its memory.
In 1879 the Mahoneites elected large
majority of the members of the Virginia
Legislature-not minority as this year
and yet in the year 1SSO-the very next
year-when it came to voting in a ma
tional election. MAHoSE's electors did
not receive one third as many votes as
the Democratic electors. The regular
Democratic ticket received 90, 449 votes,
the MALONE ticket 81, 527.
But note, again. In 1881, the next
year after the Democrats carried Vir-
ginia for HANCOCK, CAMERON, Repub-
lican, was elected Governor by a majority
OF ii, 715 votes over DANIEL, Democrat.
And in 1882, WISE. Mahoneite, was
elected Congressman-a t-large THAT is for
the whole State) by majority of over
five thousand over MASSEY, Democrat
Did these Republican or MALONE
victories in 1881 and 1882 indicate that
Virginia would support the Republican
nominee for President of the United
States in 1884 BY no means. On the
contrary the Democrats carried the State
for CLEVELAND by more than six thousand
majority.
In a word, the people of Virginia have
reasons for voting the Democratic ticket
IN national elections which do not come
into play when her voters are called upon
merely to choose as between "home-
folks" JOHN SHERMAN, JAMES G. BLAINE,
and all the rest Of the Republican lead
ers, are enemies of the southern people.
The burthen of the song which they
keep up year in and year out is that the
southern people enjoy too much liberty
that they are conniversa at fraud andperpe-
traitors of crimes against the elective fran
chise-that they have too many members
OF Congressional they are unpatriotic,
unworthy of confidence or respect, and
not half as good citizens as the Ignorant
negroes who constitute the strength of
the Republican party in every southern
State. These ISLANDERS upon our people
are naturally resented at the ballot-box.
In some OF the eastern counties OF this
State the whites are so nearly unanimous
in their determination to continue to
stand by their own people as long as they
are xrongfully vilified by the Republi-
cans that General MAHoNE's party, as he
once testified himself, has in it hardly
whites enough "to officer the negroes. "
The gods themselves are said to con-
tend in vain with stupidity and this
sort OF stupidity has characterized the
conduct of the Republican party ever
since 1865. Kindness and conciliatory
spirit would have dissolved the solid
South long ago. The fable of "the
wind and the sun" and the traveller
teaches lesson which is as true to-day
as it was thousands OF years ago. The
southern people cannot be dragoOned
into the support of the Republican party.
They will continue to present a solid
front to their enemies, end to extend the
hand of amity to their friends. They
cannot afford to divide so longas in their
native land they shall continue to be
treated as aliens, not to say as enemies.
The Shermanites, and all the other
South haters, may learn from this short
chapter Of history that in 1888 Virginia
will surely cast her vote for GROVER
CLEVELAND.